Astral Skulls

Leaning from solo to duo in 2015, in 2018 Astral Skulls ventured into a 4 piece excursion out of the bedroom. Astral Skulls performs in any number of formations now.

Since beginning Astral Skulls in April 2014, Kurt Eckardt - as Astral Skulls - has refined his own brand of jagged symphonies which swing back and forth across the pop-spectrum, stopping in at post-punk, electro and new wave.

Beef Knuckles

Beef Knuckles is a group of 3 guys who put out a small zine of the same name. Full of comics and words, only 100 are made with each cover hand screenprinted. The past few years they've been busy putting out 7 issues, as well as another zine called The Ball Street Journal – a fanzine dedicated to the greatest sport in the world; basketball.

Bonnie Mercer

Bonnie Mercer explores the unknown worlds of unrestrained feedback, hallucinatory white noise and hypnotically evolving sonic guitar experiments. A captivating solo performer, Bonnie is also a member of The Dacios, Little Desert, Hospital Pass, Breathing Shrine, and Paul Kidney Experience, and was a founding member of Grey Daturas. She also collaborates with countless legends including Scattered Order, Dumb Numbers and Magic Dirt.

Gnohms

"Shedding their former moniker of Ohms and evolving into a power trio with three lead singers, Pat (guitar, vocals), Lauren (drums, vocals) and Mark (bass, vocals) are sharing the mic, the glory and the harmonies." - Sophie Benjamin

Magpie

Above the understated rhythms of drummer James Mclean (The Tropes, Junior Fiction), guitar and bass duties in Magpie are split between Jesse (Pioneers of Good Science, Ghost Like Beast) and Leish (Ghost Dick), who takes on most of the vocals, and tells all of the tales. There is lots to find here for such a young band: the 3 friends started jamming it out in James' band/backroom late 2016, and they quickly developed their own brand of loud garage punk rock, paired with witty banter.

Mares

Mares are a Melbourne based 4 piece post rock group. They fuse the restlessness of inner-city Melbourne with imagery of oceans and rural bush-scapes. Their driving bass, arching guitars, and intricate pace offer a glimpse into the expansion that exists outside of the city, in open landscapes.

Mixed Business Collective

Party Pest

Post-punk, fun-time, gal-pals formed Party Pest in Melbourne in 2017, with their debut show at the 69th birthday bash of their No. 1 fan ("Hi Mum!"). Featuring Jemma Ives and Sally Balhorn (The Reprobettes) alongside Julia Watt (Moody Beaches, La Bastard, Hot Wings), Party Pest will crash your party, drink your booze and pash yer Mum. It's not a party without a pest!

Piss Factory

Piss Factory was started by Scout in a suburban Sydney bedroom, sporadically releasing recordings acoustically and as sound collages. In the summer of 2016 Scout moved to the mean streets of Fitzroy and brought in additional musicians to make the project into a three-piece punk powerhaus – Bianca (the Girl Fridas) on drums and Tom (Made Austria) on bass.

Plaster of Paris

Melbourne based three-piece Plaster of Paris are health goths and natural rebels notorious for their fresh-take on old-cake live shows.Guitarist, Ms Sarah Blaby, formerly of Remake Remodel (Melb), is joined by cult singer Zec Zechner of Bracode (Syd) on vocals, and photographer-by-day /drummer-by-night, Nicola Bell. Musically, they have a phantom limb in riot grrrl, and another firmly planted in a self-harming black hole.

Shrimpwitch

Shrimpwitch entered the collective consciousness of Melbourne punters in 2015, playing countless shows and self-releasing a couple of absolute corkers - all the while challenging the notion of what a live show should be, including jokes and banter that puts the best comedians to shame. Launching their debut 7" via the highly-lauded Hysterical Records last May to a sold out crowd secured their place as a favourite in Melbourne's long line of legendary garage punk acts.

Their latest singles, Digestion and Leerers, are out now and are the first taste of their debut album due out in January 2019.

Swampland

Swampland is a printed journal of longform Australian music journalism and photography.

From the editor: "Swampland has begun because I think there is a place for a magazine that tells specifically Australian music stories—something that asks intelligent questions about the music that is being made here, or has been made previously, and wonders what that says about the larger context of who we are."

The little hand of the faithful

On a sabbatical from Scattered Order, Mitchell Jones has adopted the name The little hand of the faithful to record an album of instrumental tracks with messed up guitars, odd beats, synths, found sounds and samples, which he combines to form a foreboding and urgent atmosphere.